BBC Apes 'extinct in a generation'

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>BBC DAILY E-MAIL: UK EDITION

>Thursday, 01 September, 2005, 8:00 GMT 01:00 -07:00:US/Pacific

>

>

> * Apes 'extinct in a generation' *

>A global assessment of the great apes concludes

>some could be extinct in the wild within a human

>generation.

>Full story:

>http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4202734.stm

>

Apes 'extinct in a generation'

By Richard Black

BBC News website environment correspondent

 

 

The great apes are our kin... but we have not

treated them with the respect they deserve

Kofi Annan

Some of the great apes - chimps, gorillas, and

orangutans - could be extinct in the wild within

a human generation, a new assessment concludes.

 

Human settlement, logging, mining and disease

mean that orangutans in parts of Indonesia may

lose half of their habitat within five years.

 

There are now more than 20,000 humans on the planet for every chimpanzee.

 

The World Atlas of Great Apes and their

Conservation is published by the UN's environment

and biodiversity agencies.

 

It brings together data from many sources in an

attempt to assess comprehensively the prospects

for the remaining great apes; the gorillas,

chimpanzees and bonobos of Africa, and the

orangutans of south-east Asia.

 

Gloomy outlook

 

The general conclusion is that the outlook is poor.

 

" All of the great apes are listed as either

endangered or critically endangered, " co-author

Lera Miles from the World Conservation Monitoring

Centre near Cambridge told the BBC News website.

 

" Critically endangered means that their numbers

have decreased, or will decrease, by 80% within

three generations. "

 

One critically endangered species is the

Sumatran orangutan, of which around 7,300 remain

in the wild.

 

Most live in Aceh province at the northern tip

of Sumatra, which saw armed conflict for decades

between the Indonesian government and separatist

rebels, and which suffered heavily during

December's tsunami.

 

In mid-August, a peace deal was signed which may end the 29-year conflict.

 

" The irony is that just as things are getting

better for the people of Aceh, they're getting

worse for wildlife, with people collecting

timber, dormant logging concessions being

activated, and illegal logging as well, " said Dr

Miles.

 

" Projections show that in 50 years' time, there

could be as few as 250 left in the wild; but

that's not a viable size for a population. "

 

The other species of orangutan, in Borneo, is

much better off, with around 45,000 animals

remaining; though data gathered for this report

by the United Nations Environment Programme

(Unep) and its biodiversity agency the World

Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) suggests

that numbers have declined 10-fold since the

middle of the last century.

 

African falls

 

The mountain gorilla of the Democratic Republic

of Congo, and the Cross River gorilla, found on

the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, are also

listed as critically endangered, with numbers

estimated at 700 and 250 respectively.

 

For gorillas and chimpanzees, ebola fever is emerging as a significant threat.

 

Why ebola is now taking its toll of apes is not

clear, but may be connected with forest

clearance. One theory is that the as yet

unidentified animal which harbours the virus

lives on the edges of forests; logging creates

more edges, and so enhances the transmission of

ebola.

 

An expert group of researchers which convened in

May has just released an action plan for

conserving apes in western equatorial Africa.

 

" If we find ways to protect apes from the ebola

virus, we also will protect humans, " it concludes.

 

But disease is not the only threat to the

well-being of chimpanzees, their close relatives

bonobos, and gorillas.

 

Bushmeat hunting and habitat removal by logging are also major issues.

 

The 1990s saw forest cover declining in all

African countries where gorillas, chimpanzees and

bonobos live.

 

Close to human

 

The World Atlas comes with a foreword by UN

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in which he argues

forcibly for the preservation of apes.

 

" The great apes are our kin, " he writes. " Like

us, they are self-aware and have cultures, tools,

politics, and medicines; they can learn to use

sign language, and have conversations with people

and with each other.

 

" Sadly, however, we have not treated them with the respect they deserve. "

 

 

His thesis on the close kinship of ape and man

has been reinforced by the publication this week

of the chimpanzee genome, demonstrating that

humans and chimps share 99% of their active

genetic material.

 

But stopping the decline of ape populations may

not be easy, with human encroachment continuing,

often under the pressure of poverty.

 

A key player is the Great Ape Survival Project

(Grasp), launched under UN auspices in 2001,

which aims to establish strategies for all

regions of Africa and Asia which still have ape

populations.

 

It holds its first council meeting next week in

the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4202734.stm

 

Published: 2005/09/01 00:18:03 GMT

 

© BBC MMV

 

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